Foodies Discover Ma La Braised Beef Cheek Noodle

This cuisine balances five tastes.

Spring Roll by Tonda Tran from Pixabay

There are five fundamental tastes in Vietnamese cuisine.

Spicy (metal), sour (wood), bitter (fire), salty (water), and sweet (earth).

Each dish has a tendency toward one of them, but all of them are present in some measure.